More Discussion on Sanctuary County Status at Board Meeting

The man who authored the original measure concerning sanctuary counties was in attendance Monday at the Effingham County Board meeting.

Chad McGinnis is from Iroquois County. When he retired from the military, he ran for his county board and was elected in 2016. He grew concerned about proposed state legislation he felt would restrict former service people from possessing weapons they had used in the military, so authored a measure that would address the issue.

The item was amended by Effingham County State's Attorney Bryan Kibler into the "sanctuary county" legislation approved by the Effingham County Board earlier this year and borrowed and approved by other boards since that time.

A local resident spoke to the Board at the start of Monday's meeting. The resident of County Board District E, Lindy Schmidt, said she thinks the Board "spends too much time on issues on which they have no regulatory authority". She said if that doesn't change, it might be time for a new Board.

The Board Monday also:

--amended the county's Emergency Evacuation Plan to address an active shooter situation

--moved a County holiday from Election Day November 6 to July 27, the date of the EffingHAM-JAM Festival, due to issues gaining access to the County Office Building

--approved an energy assessment to be conducted by SmartWatt

--amended the county ambulance ordinance to remove brand names from certain portions of the measure

--agreed to let ECCCMA relocate two concrete columns from the corner of Wabash and 5th to the south sidewalk leading to the County Courthouse Museum

--agreed to let Effingham County Farm Bureau use County property to mark its 100th anniversary with a Mayoral Milking Contest in June

--agreed to allocate $0 from the hotel/motel fund for maintenance of the TREC trails since no money has been used the past three years, but to instead allocate funds to the Shumway Fire Protection District to improve the signage on the TREC trails

--abated the GIS fee for the cities of Altamont and Effingham to use the County's GIS

--agreed to bid out audit services after the coming audit

--raised the bid amount by $150 for the firm that handles the sale of delinquent taxes on certain parcels of property

--honored Joyce Worman, who is retiring as County Board Office Administrator after 15 years' service

(JOYCE WORMAN WITH COUNTY BOARD CHAIRMAN JIM NIEMANN)

The Board also named Steve Robinson, Lindsey McKinney-Mette, Duane Kremer and Jeffrey Evans as trustees to the Edgewood Bi-County, Montrose, Teutopolis and Tri-County Fire Protection Districts; and named Henry Verdeyen and Jim Ping to the County Board of Review. The Board named Michael Tate to the 708 Board; Board members John Perry and Joe Thoele to the Agricultural Area Review Board; and Mike DePoister to the 911 Board.

Board members awarded bids to the low bidders for road maintenance materials at a savings of $30,000 over last year; agreed to Federal participation on a 1-1/2 mile stretch of the State Aid Road running past the Teutopolis KC Hall and south out of the village; and agreed to Federal participation on a bridge project two miles northwest of Altamont along 1200th Avenue.

Three items related to the County Transportation System were also approved: a memorandum of understanding with Shelby County, a purchase of service agreement with CEFS to provide transportation services, and a vehicle lease agreement so the vehicles owned by the County can be leased to CEFS.